Inflatable game balls, such as footballs, basketballs, volleyballs and soccer balls, are well known and typically include an inner inflatable air bladder and an outer cover. The cover can be formed of one or more cover panels. The outer cover of footballs and other types of game balls also typically include trademarks, symbols and logos. Leather game balls have existed for several decades. In football and basketball, as in many other sports, the gripping and tactile characteristics of the ball can considerably affect the performance of the participating players. In particular, the tactile characteristics of the outer surface of the game ball significantly effect the player's ability to catch, pass or otherwise control the ball accurately and reliably.
Many existing leather game balls use lasers or branding techniques to add indicia to the outer surface of the leather game balls. Such existing techniques for applying indicia to the outer surface of leather game balls have the effect of making the outer surface of the cover panel less grip-able or more slippery at these locations. When a cover panel undergoes a conventional laser, branding or other thermal and/or chemical process to apply indicia, the outer surface of the leather game ball is typically burnt, damaged and/or otherwise destroyed, these damaged areas typically are far more slippery or significantly less grip-able than regions of the leather game ball cover that has not undergone such damaging process. Accordingly, existing leather games balls having indicia that is applied to the outer surface of the ball through laser techniques, branding or other thermal applications typically result in severely reducing the performance characteristics of the leather game balls at the locations of the indicia, in particular a player's ability to grip, pass, catch, hold, control, shoot and/or handle the leather game ball.
In an effort to avoid the destructive laser, branding or other thermal techniques, in many instances labels or decals are applied over the outer surface of the leather game ball. The use of additional labels and/or decals typically results in similar reduction in the grip-ability of the leather game ball. The additional labels and/or decals can add to the cost of the ball. Further, many such labels and/or decals can peel, flake, or wear away over time.
Due to the many negative characteristics of applying graphical and/or alphanumeric indicia to the outer surface of a leather game ball as discussed above, the use of such indicia is typically minimally applied to the outer surface of the ball. Typically, such indicia is only applied to a portion of the cover, or just to a portion of one or two cover panels thereby limiting the surface area of the game ball that includes the indicia.
Thus, there is a need for applying alphanumeric and/or graphical indicia to the outer surface of a leather game ball that does not negatively affect the performance, grip and/or playability of the leather game ball. What is needed is a technique to apply such indicia to the outer surface of a leather game ball in a manner that is durable and does not add significant additional cost to the production of the leather game ball. What is needed is a technique for applying alphanumeric and/or graphical indicia to the outer surface of a leather game ball that does not alter or improves the gripping and tactile characteristics, or frictional interaction with the hands of a user, without deviating or radically departing from the ball's traditional design and organized play equipment requirements.